Business News Roundup, March 11

Chronicle Staff and News Services

Updated 4:49 pm, Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP / Getty Images

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(FILES) -- In this May 10, 2012 file photo, a view of and Apple iPhone displaying the Facebook app's splash screen in front of the login page on a computer are shown in Washington, DC. A Paris court ruled on March 5, 2015 that US-based social media site Facebook can be judged in France, in a case brought by a French user whose Facebook account was blocked by the company after he posted a photo of Courbet's painting to promote a television program on the painter. AFP PHOTO / KAREN BLEIERKAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images less

(FILES) -- In this May 10, 2012 file photo, a view of and Apple iPhone displaying the Facebook app's splash screen in front of the login page on a computer are shown in Washington, DC. A Paris court ruled on ... more

Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP / Getty Images

Business News Roundup, March 11

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Technology

News site

Gigaom closes

Technology news site Gigaom abruptly shut down operations because it could no longer pay its debts.

Less than three hours after Gigaom reporters posted their last stories on Monday’s Apple Watch event, the site posted a notice saying that it could not pay its creditors, which have rights to the company’s assets as collateral. “All operations have ceased,” the note said, adding that there were no immediate plans to file for bankruptcy. “We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along.”

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The site and its stories remained online Tuesday. But founder Om Malik, who started the company in San Francisco in 2006 to extend the reach of his tech blog, said operations are “winding down.”

“It is not how you want the story of a company you founded to end,” Malik, who left Gigaom a year ago, said on his personal site.

Gigaom, which reportedly received an $8 million round of funding in February 2014, said it had 6.5 million monthly unique readers. It operated a tech news site and produced events like Gigaom Structure, scheduled for June 17 and 18 in San Francisco. It’s unclear what will happen to a New York conference scheduled for next week.

Senior writer Stacey Higginbotham posted her thoughts on a personal site, calling the news of the shutdown “sudden and surprising.”

Other Gigaom staffers took to Twitter to say goodbye.

Social media

No more

'feeling fat’

Facebook users will no longer find “feeling fat” among emoji available for assistance in the art of self expression.

“I think it was supposed to be funny, but seeing this status made me feel angry,” wrote Catherine Weingarten, a student at Ohio State University who started the petition. “When Facebook users set their status to 'feeling fat,’ they are making fun of people who consider themselves to be overweight, which can include many people with eating disorders. That is not OK.”

The petition garnered more than 16,000 signatures.

“We’ve heard ... that listing 'feeling fat’ as an option for status updates could reinforce negative body image, particularly for people struggling with eating disorders,” a Facebook representative said.

Retail

Target details

its job cuts

Target said in a filing Tuesday that it will lay off 1,700 employees at its Minneapolis headquarters, the first in a wave of job cuts expected in the next two years.

Executives at Target, which is in the midst of a turnaround after a string of lackluster years, warned investors last week to expect “several thousand” job cuts, mostly in Minneapolis, as it reorganizes operations.

Target expects to pay severance costs of about $100 million, which will be booked in its first-quarter earnings. It is aiming for a total savings of $2 billion over the next two years.

Internet

Google exec

plans to retire

Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette plans to retire after helping the Internet search leader find and train his replacement within the next six months.

The impending change, disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday, is the latest in a flurry of transitions in the technology industry. Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.com have replaced their chief financial officers or announced plans to so in the past year.

Pichette, 52, was more than just the executive in charge of Google’s books and its $64 billion cash hoard. He has also been primarily responsible for explaining business strategy and management philosophy to investors during quarterly earnings conference calls after CEO Larry Page decided he no longer wanted to handle that chore in 2013.

Pichette, an avid bicyclist and backpacker, said he decided to retire at a still relatively young age so he can spend more time wandering the world with his wife, Tamar, according to an explanation posted on his Google Plus page.

Banking

Credit Suisse

replaces CEO

Shares in Credit Suisse climbed after the Swiss bank sought to turn the page on a period of scandals and fines by replacing its CEO, Brady Dougan, with the head of British insurer Prudential, Tidjane Thiam.

Dougan will step down at the end of June to give way to Thiam, who helped Prudential expand into emerging markets in recent years.

Credit Suisse shares closed up nearly 7 percent.

Economy

Wholesalers’

stockpiles up

U.S. wholesale businesses increased their stockpiles by a modest amount in January as sales plunged by the largest amount in six years.

Stockpiles held by wholesale businesses rose 0.3 percent in January after no change in December, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

Sales dropped 3.1 percent in January after a 0.9 percent December decline. The January decline was the largest since sales fell 3.6 percent in March 2009 when the country was mired in the recession. January marked the fourth consecutive month that sales have fallen.